SHE HAS a gigantic head with her brown hair tied right back and wears yellow overalls that fit her paper-like body — it’s Narm, the leading character in the famous online cartoon “Narm’s life.” She leads a comical life and brings smiles to the readers’ face by introducing hilarious episodes that happen in her life. What’s in her mind? What makes her face the world with such optimism? Let’s hear the real life version of Narm’s story, the story of Seo Na-rae (Sr., Dept. of Human Environ. & Design).

A girl who liked comic books
It was through the comic book “My Love” that I discovered and developed an interest in cartoons. As a 13-year-old child who was so into this book, I used to copy some of the drawings from it. After some time, I gradually changed the figures of the characters so that they were easier to draw and my imitation as well as imagination finally led to a creation. I originally started up-loading my cartoons on my blog for fun but as they became quite famous, I launched a website www.narm.co.kr in 2004. Today, it has about 13,000 to 15,000 visitors a day. I’m really thankful that people find joy in what I love to do.

The story behind Narm’s Life
All the characters in “Narm’s Life” have their own real-life models. Although the outer appearances of the characters do not always match real people, their personalities, manner of speaking, and actions do have parallels to real life characters. I usually get ideas for cartoons in my everyday life. Whenever I find something amusing, I try to keep a rough sketch of the incident for later use. Thanks to this habit, my ideas rarely run out. When I hit a slump, those drawings become my guide.

So it was at Yonsei
What I like most at Yonsei is that I can meet a variety of good people. I have received a great amount of assistance from people who share similar hobbies with me. With their help, I seized the opportunity to serialize comic strips in Yonsei Chunchu in 2005. The animation type of cartoon I’m publishing on a famous portal website also started from their support. Through their assistance, I was able to try different kinds of work.

My life as a cartoonist
For me, cartoons are adrenaline. They are the source of energy that keeps me alive. One of the merits of being a cartoonist is that when some fun things happen in my life, I have the chance to share that humor with others. Once in a while, my heart tears to pieces when I see offensive comments and personal attacks on me on the Internet. I try hard not to read them but I know I can’t avoid them. However, it energizes me again when the readers tell me my cartoons made their day, after a long series of depressing hours.

To Yonseians
Surely, it must be a tough time for those who are at the threshold of finding a career and those who are striving to get good grades. I just want to say one thing. You have to enjoy your life to the full. Of course, with “Narm’s Life!”

“You resemble Narm! Wait, should it be the other way around?” to this comment of mine, Seo smiles with great joy and thanks me. Throughout the interview, I could feel her image overlapping with that of Narm’s. “I want to give a little laughter to people’s lives” she remarks with a smile. When the life seems to be an endless chain of nightmares, click onto Narm’s Life and have yourself a good laugh.